Report shows disturbing state inside Villawood

The report found scars from self-harm and suicidal thoughts were common among the centre's population.

AAP

An Australian Human Rights Commission report on Sydney's Villawood detention centre details extensive problems of self-harm and depression among detainees.

The report found scars from self-harm, sleepless nights, despair and frequent suicidal thoughts were common among the centre's population of 400 people.

Commission president Catherine Branson QC spent half a day there.

"We spoke here with people who said they thought constantly of suicide and self-harm, people who had in fact self-harmed by swallowing detergent in one case, chemicals in another," she said.

"You get the sense, walking in, of disturbed people, depressed people, agitated people. There is not a sense of normality around you."

Ms Branson blames long periods of detention, with more than half of the nearly 7,000 detainees across the country held for six months and 1,300 waiting up to 18 months for asylum applications to be processed.

She says inmates, already close to breaking point, are being put under immense psychological pressure and are being told they could just choose to go home.

She says she has heard reports of detainees being warned against considering appealing against any adverse decision.

Ms Branson says either detention staff or government officials have told them any appeal process would mean more time in detention and that they always have the option of returning to where they came from.

"We were fearful that might discourage people from seeking judicial review; that is from exercising the legal rights that the law of Australia gives to them," she said.

She says most Australians would be shocked if they realised what life was actually like in Villawood.

"You've got the sense of a serious criminal justice facility - very high fences around you including inside compounds, camera surveillance, stationary guards at gates," she said.

"In the Blaxland facility, [there are] significant numbers of men living in dormitory style accommodation with no privacy at all. Many people with no safe places to lock up their personal belongings.

"I think the average Australian would be disturbed if required to spend even a short period of time living there."

'Toxic system'

Ms Branson says talking to detainees was an emotional experience.

"I felt very drained when I left the centre and I had staff who were there much longer than me," she said.

"But the period of time that I was there left me feeling very drained and very disturbed and I was not there for more than half a day."

She has renewed calls for the Federal Government to abandon its mandatory detention policy, saying there are other ways to manage asylum seekers.

"Conditions can be placed on them as to where they live, reporting requirements can be placed on them," she said.

"But [it's] much more humane to allow people to live in the community unless we have some reason to think that would create a danger for the Australian people."

The report found the problems of depression and self-harm have escalated in the past 12 months. Last year, three male inmates committed suicide at Villawood.

Professor Louise Newman, chairwoman of the Detention Health Advisory Group to the Department of Immigration, says Villawood is in a serious state.

"Of course people can choose to leave, but I think this opens major concerns about coercion, about psychological pressure being put on people rather than taking an appropriate neutral stance," she said.

"Villawood certainly is serious in terms of the cluster of suicides. Whenever we have in close proximity people killing themselves that raises very serious issues about the function of a system and should be looked at in that way."

Professor Newman says the serious impact of mandatory detention on mental health was made clear in studies one decade ago.

"Governments are aware this is a damaging and very toxic system, and yet the politics are such that it seems to be absolutely imperative," she said.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says the Government is committed to improving processing times in detention and that appropriate health services including mental health are made available to all detainees.